Griffin Newman On ‘Our Cartoon President’, ‘The Tick’ & ‘Draft Day’

After dropping out of college and bouncing around the New York comedy scene for years, Newman is now one of the stars of “The Tick” on Amazon Prime and does Jared Kushner’s voice on Showtime’s “Our Cartoon President.” Newman has wanted parts in the past, but he really wanted to play Kushner because of how much his name is in the news and how little he’s actually spoken during his time working for President Trump.

“He speaks so rarely,” said Newman in an interview with CBS Local. “I mean, it’s this weird thing now… we’re going into our second season, so by the end of this season there will be 26 episodes I think. There’s more recording of me speaking as Jared Kushner on a cartoon show than this guy speaking to the press.”

Season two of the show premieres Sunday, May 12 at 8pm EST/PST on Showtime. While Newman has had recent success in landing roles, he’s also learned how to be patient in waiting for an opportunity after missing out on things in the past.

“Even me getting ‘The Tick’ was a byproduct of me not getting a part for another movie,” said Newman. “They wanted a more famous person and the casting director was fighting really hard for me. I couldn’t get the part, but a year later she got the script for ‘The Tick.’ She immediately said I know who you should hire, Griffin Newman. They said, who is that. It was an uphill battle to convince everyone to sign off on me. It’s a big show and a large role and I had never played a co-lead before.”

In addition to “The Tick,” one of the biggest breaks of Newman’s career came when he played Kevin Costner’s intern in “Draft Day.” People in Newman’s life still talk about his role in the fictitious story about the Cleveland Browns front office because he is the polar opposite of the character he played in the film.

“My dad is obviously a big sports fan and he is still so immensely proud of me for being in that movie,” said Newman. “Him and all my friends who are sports fans find it incredibly funny because they know I don’t understand anything that movie is about. I don’t understand business or sports.”